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Crossout is the post-apocalyptic MMO Action game in which you can craft your unique battle vehicles from a myriad of interchangeable parts, ride them directly into combat and destroy your enemies in explosive PvP online battles in the air and on the ground.

New changes in the market and their causes

Today we would like to talk about the latest changes in the market and why they are being introduced.

Many of you are aware of the term “Address in-game transactions” (when one player knows exactly to whom he will sell the lot) from the game. Those of you who are actively using the in-game market know how this happens: the price of certain items starts to jump or fall sharply for no objective reason. It certainly does not look like a fair price formed as a result of the supply and demand balance.

Please note that address in-game transactions are conducted for the purpose of transferring funds from one account to another. As well as any other fraudulent actions, such deals are prohibited in the game. But a transfer of valuables from one in-game account to another is only half the problem. These actions are also used to withdraw funds from stolen accounts and to launder money from stolen cards (so-called “fraud”).

All of this causes direct damage not only to the game, but to the players as well. To commit fraudulent actions, accounts without two-step authorization are often hacked and used, which, in turn, leads to their blocking and the player losing all progress in the game.

We remind you that at the moment the most effective way to protect your account is to enable two-step authorization and use different passwords for your email and for the game, if two-step authorization is connected via mail.

Why are address in-game transactions possible?

As you probably guessed, such operations are possible due to the fact that players can set any price for the offer, i.e. get extra profit from a speculative trade. You can reasonably note that at the early development stages this feature was announced as one of the main ones. However, let's take a closer look at how this actually works.

It is important to understand that “setting any price” is not equal to “selling at any price”, since it always takes two people to complete a deal. Moreover, both participants (both the seller and the buyer) must consider its conditions acceptable. That is, when setting “any” price, it is not certain that you will be able to sell or buy anything.

As a part of this blog, we would not like to dive into all the nuances of the “Depth of Market”, which is implemented in our in-game market. But we consider it necessary to point out some of its extremely important features:

  • All transactions are ALWAYS made at the most FAVORABLE prices FOR YOU, i.e. the sale will be made at the highest possible price, and the purchase will be made at the lowest.
    • For example: if there is a sale offer for 100 coins and for 150 coins, and you are ready to pay 200, then you will purchase this offer for 100 coins. And vice versa: if you are ready to sell something for 50 coins, and the market has a purchase request for 90 and 80 coins, then the transaction will be made for 90 coins.
  • The minimum sell price and the maximum purchase price are the boundaries of the corridor where the REAL deals are made.
  • If you put your item for sale above this “corridor”, then, before your lot is bought, all of the cheaper lots must already be purchased.

Some interesting information

In one of the past updates, we left free pricing for players who enabled 2-step authentication, and for the rest the ability to trade certain items was blocked and the dynamic price corridors were introduced.
As a result, the market was not harmed and the number of players trading with a connected two-step authorization increased by several times. Such growth in the number of accounts protected from hacking is good news.

Interesting fact: according to statistics, 98.5% of real sales were made within the price corridors even before the 0.12.5 update. And for the remaining 1.5%, the share of fraudulent transactions is about 90%. This means that in the absolute majority of cases, the ability to set “any” price is used to make address transactions, which harms both the game and other players.

What has changed in the market?

Based on all the information received during the observations, we decided to make the following changes to the market:

  • The ability to trade certain items only with two-step authorization enabled remains.
  • Price corridors will now be active for all players without exception.

How do these corridors work?

  • Players will continue to influence pricing: if the supply and demand balance shifts upward or downward, the price corridor will follow its direction.
  • The corridor is dynamic: it changes in real time, depending on the current market situation.
  • Corridor boundaries are calculated based only on actual trades.
  • The corridor is individual for each item - the width and speed of its change may differ.

We would like to specifically note that we do not pursue the goal of introducing strict price regulation and do not have such plans in the near future. As before, it is the players who will influence the market prices - this is as important for us as it is for you.

13 October 2020